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What Might Happen Before Dallas?!?!?!

The Crazy World of Pokémon

What’s up 60 Cards readers? Are you attending Dallas? Well, there have been rumours floating around online Facebook groups that there might be a potential ban list that MIGHT come into effect before Dallas Regionals. For those of you who don’t know, a ban list is where Pokémon actually disallows the use of certain cards for an event because they are too powerful in a certain format.

While this might make Dallas and future events more enjoyable, it would definitely shake the game up heading into a major event. In this article today, we will be going over what might happen, some of the cards that might get banned, and how you can deal with a last minute metagame shift. We want to clearly state that if there is a ban list, it might be deemed too soon for Dallas which means it COULD take place after that specific event. That being said, let’s jump into the article.

Table of contents

The Crazy World of Pokémon

A Potential Ban List?

Suspect Cards

How Can You Deal With it?

See Ya in Dallas

A Potential Ban List?

On a page that you can find on the Pokémon website, you can find that a current ban list already forbids players from playing some powerful cards in the Expanded format. Well, with the recent results of Anaheim Regionals, several players have voiced their frustrations with the state of the Expanded format. The format continues to be dominated by
Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
decks and Dead Draw Gaming’s Jimmy Pendarvis has won the last two Expanded Regionals in a row. Did we mention that he did it with the same deck? Oh yeah, he played a
Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
/
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
‘control’ deck in both Portland and Anaheim to show us all the best deck in the format.

If you are curious on reading more about that deck, our writer Zach Lesage has been working like crazy on a multi-series article that goes over the deck! You can read the first part of the article here. Getting back on track, Pokémon releases quarterly ban lists to help ensure that a format is fun for the majority of players and that the game remains healthy. In this current point in time, most players would agree that Expanded is NOT the most healthy format and it is just about time for a quarterly ban list from Pokémon. Some players have speculated on the ban list going live two days before Dallas so we thought it would be an I retesting idea to think about some of the possible cards that might get nerfed. Let’s jump into it.

Suspect Cards

The following cards are some of the most powerful cards in the game and these are some of the cards that we think could get banned. At this current point in the game, none of these cards are banned and they are ALLOWED to played at ANY Expanded event right now. If any card gets banned from Pokémon, it is NOT allowed to be played at any event. Got it? Good!

Zoroark-GX

Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
has absolutely dominated both the Standard and Expanded format which makes the game kinda stale. The reason why this card is so powerful varies because it has been used as an attacker and as an engine for ‘control’ decks. Last season
Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
was used with
Exeggcute (PF; 4)
and
Sky Field (ROS; 89)
to hit for massive amounts of damage each turn of the game. This season,
Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
is used to abuse Trade with
Exeggcute (PF; 4)
to draw into pesky draw Supporters to ‘control’ your opponent. The power and synergy with many cards in the format allow the same ‘
Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
’ decks to continuously finish at the top of any Expanded tournament. This card is so powerful that it makes other decks, such as ‘turbo’
Darkrai EX (BKP; 74)
, dead in the metagame due to its speediness. As much as it is sad to wish harm to the playability of any card,
Zoroark GX (SLG; 77)
has reigned supreme for way to long.

Lusamine

The fact that a card exists that can loop with itself absolutely boggles us! You see,
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
can grab back
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
with
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
and get back another
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
with that card is INSANE. You also get back another card, effectively leading you to situations where you can bring back more cards into your deck if you play a card like
Cynthia (UPR; 119)
or just grabbing back resources that can hurt your opponent.

Unsurprisingly, this card was ALSO featured in Pendarvis’ Anaheim winning list and he used
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
to get back disruption Supporters over and over again. While
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
WOULD be a balanced card if it were to be errata’d as a PRISM STAR card or to not be able to grab back
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
, that is not the case. Until this card gets banned, which we really hope it does, we have the doors open to a bunch of ‘control’ decks that will abuse this card.

Seismitoad-EX

Wow, another card featured from Pendarvis’ deck,
Seismitoad EX (FRF; 106)
is only here because Item Lock is not a FUN factor in the game and has always been a problem. The banned
Forest of Giant Plants (ANO; 74)
to stop
Vileplume (ANO; 3)
from getting setup turn one, we shouldn’t have to deal with Quaking Punch. This card is really a light issue overall, but it isn’t fun when paired with
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
, which we already discussed above, so that is a major reason why it is on our list. If
Lusamine (CIN; 96)
were to be banned / errata’d, we would have no issues with the card in Expanded.

Tropical Beach

Tropical Beach 11 (BW; 28)
isn’t really a threat in Expanded, but it is a threat to your wallet! With the limited circulation of this World Championship promo card from 2011 floating around,
Tropical Beach 11 (BW; 28)
has become a really expensive card. We have seen prices for this card soar beyond 300$ and those numbers can only rise up. Most decks that run this card require a playset and we don’t think 1200$ is an appropriate number to start off any deck with. If they reprint this card, allow proxies, or figure out some work around, we are all good. Until then, this card is too expensive to play and shouldn’t be in the format due to its cost.

Delinquent

We already slightly went over this card, but let’s make sure you completely understand where we are coming from. You can potentially get your opponent’s hand down to a limited amount of cards and snipe another three cards with
Delinquent (BKP; 98)
. If those other cards didn’t exists, this wouldn’t be such an issue, but they do so it is. We believe that the game should be played out with great strategy instead of discarding cads from your opponent’s hand.

N

If you have played any Expanded recently or if you played a format where
N (FCO; 105)
was legal back in the day, you obviously have heard of the ‘I got
N (FCO; 105)
’d to 1 and drew nothing’ stories that come from this card. While the effect is cool and semi-balanced, you shouldn’t have a chance to just lose your hand because your opponent played a Supporter card. Like we said above, let’s play the games at the table and not just through luck.

How Can You Deal With it?

Well, we don’t know what or if anything is getting banned so it is quite puzzling to give advice on this exact subject. You can playtest with multiple decks, make sure that you always have extra cards, and have a back-up plan in general. With the timing of the potential ban list and the amount of time that players prep with their decks, we hardly seem to think that anything would take place before Dallas.

That being said, Pokémon might want to lay down the law and shake things up at the absolute last moment. You never know when you are going to walk into a moment that falls under unprecedented territory so keep yourself prepared. Another cool way to look at this article is if your current deck plays any or all of the above cards, there is a solid chance that your deck is well prepared for Dallas. Those cards above feel toxic to play with and against, but they are totally allowed to be played right now. As long as you are playing the game with the upmost Spirit of the Game and your aren’t cheating, play whatever cards you legally want to. Well, hopefully that above list at least gives you a warning of cards that MIGHT get banned, we will all find out whatever happens if and when it happens.

See Ya in Dallas

As most of the 60 Cards team prepares for Dallas, we hope to see all of the readers enjoying themselves and trying their shot to become a Regional Champion. It has been a great 2018 and we hope that some upcoming changes on our site will excite you. Beyond producing as much content as we can, including FREE articles such as this one, we do have some SPECIAL things coming your way too! Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming announcement on all of your Social Media channels that will make you smile from ear to ear. Beyond that, stay tuned for a bunch of other Expanded articles releasing over the next two weeks and for next Wednesday’s Metagame Analysis. It is our hopes that with our FREE premium content that you might want to try out a PREMIUM subscription to read what is behind the paywalls in some of our articles.